Third International Conference on Philosophy of Information
Information Philosophy: The Philosophical Foundations of the Information Era

Past ICPI Conferences

First ICPI conference held in Xi’an, China on October 2013

Second ICPI conference Vienna, Austria on June 2015.

Past ICPI conferences brought together scientists and philosophers in the academia and industry from all over the world, and have achieved fruitful results. Currently, the ICPI is a biennial conference and has been incorporated into the Summits of the International Society for Information Studies jointly organized with and related international universities and institutions. The next ICPI will be held in conjunction with the next Summit at the University of California, Berkeley in 2019.

Overall Theme

The Foundations of the Information Era: Information Philosophy, Science and Technology for an Information Society, Ecology and Economy.

The second half of the 20th century has seen the rapid growth of information science, technology and engineering that amounts to a social and technological revolution. These new trends have transformed the political, economical, educational, managemental, military and cultural institutions of human society, and thus the human way of life, communication, lifestyles, ways of thinking and mindset. These comprehensive changes will bring humans to a brand new era – the age of an information civilization. The Philosophy of Information, as it has emerged and developed since the 1980s, can be considered as the philosophy reflecting this new era.

Objectives

At present, the establishment of a unified theory of information science is highly needed. From its research perspectives, a Unified Information Science, as a generalized information science, is no longer only dealing with specific information studies, but is rather an integrated and comprehensive field of studies in a broad sense. Information studies can be divided into several fields in terms of their focus, such as Philosophy of Information, Information Science (including intelligence and cognitive science), and the others listed above. For these areas, the Philosophy of Information offers the general theoretical basis. Only on the basis of philosophy could the specific information studies, at their various levels, be unified and a rational construction of a Unified Information Science achieved.

Especially in China, the contemporary philosophy of information begins with taking information as the fundamental principle of being or existence of the world, and then proposes the theory of dual existence of matter (including mass and energy) and information (including mind as a highly complex form of information). Because all things in the world are a unity of matter and information, no existing discipline of human knowledge can avoid the study of information. It is for that reason that we consider a unified information science to be a modern discipline system containing all human knowledge levels. In that sense, the discussion of the corresponding philosophical basis of different categories of information studies at various levels can facilitate the grand goal to construct a unified information science, and display the union of philosophy and science in the information age.

As information exhibits its universal character in an increasingly clear way, the information paradigm starts to play a powerful role in connecting and reforming the fields of science through information. Even though there are disciplines that yet haven’t been transformed, there are no disciplines that could not be transformed by the information paradigm.

As human beings we are facing a great fundamental transformation of civilization, conflicts and confrontations in fields of culture, economy, society and ecology becoming progressively more diverse and intense. This calls for in-depth research and reflection on the philosophical level, so as to effectively foster the development of a new system of human civilization, with the aim to promote the prosperity of human society, and to try to insure a future world of democracy, freedom and human happiness, shared by all humans.

Scope and Topics

1. Basic theoretical studies on the Philosophy of Information.
2. Studies on the relationship between the scientific revolution, technological revolution, engineering revolution and philosophical revolution brought about by the contemporary information paradigm shift.
3. Studies on the administration and education of the Philosophy of Information.
4. Studies on the philosophy of an information economy and of information society.
5. Basic philosophical studies on information-ecological civilization.
6. Comparative study of the Philosophy of Information and other kinds of philosophy.
7. Cross-disciplinary studies of related issues of Philosophy of Information and specific scientific fields.

Contacts

Kun Wu
Director, International Center of Philosophy of Information, Xi’an Jiaotong University;
Cell phone:+86 13399284026; e-mail:wukun@mail.xjtu.edu.cn

Joseph Brenner
Associate Director, International Center of Philosophy of Information, Xi’an Jiaotong University;
International Center for Transdisciplinary Research, Paris, France;
Cell phone: +41 79 4257345; e-mail:joe.brenner@bluewin.ch

Jian Wang
International Center of Philosophy of Information, Xi’an Jiaotong University
Cell phone:+86 15094030651; e-mail:wangjian0501@163.com

Ping Wang
International Center of Philosophy of Information, Xi’an Jiaotong University
Cell phone:+86 18502120805; e-mail:phoebe0805@126.com

International Society for Information Studies – Chinese Chapter (IS4IS-CC)
Xi’an Jiaotong University – International Center of Philosophy of Information (XJTU-ICPI)
Organizing Team of the Third International Conference of Philosophy of Information